Decision Making Framework

The main aim of Work package 5.2 is to identify and integrate appropriate productive re-use of urban water for agriculture into the policy, legislative and regulatory, urban planning and decision-making frameworks of cities. The Work package is being implemented in three cities; Accra, Beijing and Lima, and linkages have been developed fwith Hamburg.

Citrus is susceptible to a large number of diseases caused by plant pathogens. Economic losses due to plant diseases can be severe, but fortunately, not all pathogens attacking citrus are present in Florida. Major citrus diseases currently present in Florida include: Alternaria brown spot, blight, citrus canker, greasy spot, melanose, Phytophthora-induced diseases (foot and root rot, brown rot), postbloom fruit drop (PFD), scab, and tristeza. An exotic, destructive disease called citrus greening (Huanglongbing) has recently been found in Florida. Any exotic diseases, if introduced, will increase production costs and decrease profitability for Florida growers. Exotic diseases could affect the viability of the industry or the varieties that could be profitably grown. Background information for each exotic citrus disease is presented in a series of fact sheets to: 1) provide a basis for evaluating exotic pathogens that may pose potential risks to Florida citrus; and 2) create a decisio...

This paper outlines an approach to natural resource management that incorporates multiple objectives for protected area management within a decision-making framework. Both regulators and other major stakeholders are directly incorporated into the approach to enhance decision-making processes. We call this approach trade-off analysis. The approach uses a framework based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) but involves stakeholders at all stages. This holistic approach is appropriate for multiple use, complex systems such as marine protected areas (MPAs), where many different users are apparently in conflict and where linkages and feedbacks between different aspects of the ecosystem and economy exist. The paper applies trade-off analysis to the case of Buccoo Reef Marine Park (BRMP) in Tobago. Stakeholder analysis is undertaken, and social, economic and ecological criteria identified. The impacts of four different development scenarios are evaluated for these criteria. Stakeholders are asked to weight different criteria and then the outcomes of different stakeholder weightings in the MCA are used to explore different management options. For BRMP, the MCA suggests consensus around development options characterised as limited tourism development for the area surrounding the park in association with the implementation of complementary environmental management. The approach has been used to enhance stakeholder involvement in decision-making and develop consensus-based approaches to management of the MPA.

Adopting environmentally acceptable practices in New Zealand is a crucial requirement for mineral wealth development. Recent planned expansions in the coal industry have increasingly placed mining in the media spotlight. A lack of appropriate national environmental guidelines has resulted in inconsistent responses and assessments of current and prospective mine sites. Such inconsistencies have lead to delays in decisions on developing economic mineral deposits that may have only minor short-term impacts, and have also allowed unacceptable environmental management practices to continue elsewhere. A research collaboration between CRL Energy, Landcare Research, University of Canterbury and University of Otago aims to provide regulator groups and the mining industry with a unified approach to the requirements of the Resource Management Act 1991, which is the legislation that predominantly drives the nation's environmental policies and guidelines. The tangible outcome of this resear...

... a * , Krzysztof Zatwarnicki b & Anna Zatwarnicka b pages 837-857. ... IEEE Trans. on Computers 51 ( 6 ): 637 – 651 . [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®], [CSA] View all references; Vakali and Pallis 200322. Vakali , A. and Pallis , G. 2003 . Content delivery networks: status and trends . ...

This paper investigates the application of self-adaptation genetic algorithm on a flexible and configurable heuristic decision making framework that can tackle the problem of bidding across multiple auctions that apply different protocols (English, Vickrey and Dutch) by using an autonomous agent to search for the most effective strategies (offline). Our study shows that self-adaptation genetic algorithm performance is much better than conventional genetic algorithm. An empirical evaluation on the effectiveness of genetic algorithm and self-adaptation genetic algorithm for searching the most effective strategies in the heuristic decision making framework are discussed in this paper.

The international workshop on Policy Modeling for Industrial Energy Use was jointly organized by EETA (Professional Network for Engineering Economic Technology Analysis) and INEDIS (International Network for Energy Demand Analysis in the Industrial Sector). The workshop has helped to layout the needs and challenges to include policy more explicitly in energy-efficiency modeling. The current state-of-the-art models have a proven track

Building a new tourism facility is a critical decision made by private and public owners. Determining facilities locations is critical to the success and failure of such investments. The selection of a tourism development site involves a complex array of decision factors involving economic, social, technical, and environmental issues. In the process of finding the optimum location that meet desired conditions the analyst is challenged by the tedious manipulation of spatial data and the management of multiple decision-making criteria. Geographic information systems (GIS), Multicriteria Decision Making techniques (MCDM), and Expert Systems (ES) are the most common tools employed to solve siting problems. However, each suffers from serious shortcomings and could not be used alone to reach an optimum solution. This paper presents a new decision making framework in which ES, GIS and MCDM techniques are integrated systematically to facilitate decision-making regarding selection of suitabl...

While the concepts of remanufacturing and reverse logistics are gaining global popularity, the available literature and theory on strategic decision-making in these areas is limited. A remanufacturing decision-making framework (RDMF) was developed based upon extensive literature review, case studies with representatives of OE supplier companies, and was validated especially, for the automotive industry. The reman research targeted the following macro-level parameters: strategic product planning, design for reman, plant location, production systems, physical distribution, and cooperation among reman stakeholders. The strategic reman factors identified from the literature review were broadened by case studies and surveys to develop the RDMF. The findings served as the foundation for further research with automotive industry companies engaged in Original Equipment (OE) sales, Original Equipment Services (OES), and Independent Aftermarket (IAM) business. The research findings were validated by an industry survey of senior managers/executives and academic experts with significant experience in reman decision-making. Participants were asked to make paired comparisons using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which helped the researchers to further refine and prioritize the strategic decision-making factors, thereby, strengthening the RDMF. The resultant RDMF is presented with implications for its usage in automotive reman processes. RDMF is also applicable for similar decision-making processes in other industrial sectors.

Online auctions are increasingly being used as a medium to procure goods and services. As the number of auction sites increases, however, consumers will inevitably want to track and bid in multiple auctions (with multiple protocols) in order to get the best deal for their desired goods. To this end, this paper reports on the development of a heuristic decision making framework that an autonomous agent can exploit to tackle the problem of bidding across multiple heterogeneous auctions. The framework enables the agent to adopt varying tactics and strategies that attempt to ensure that the user's objectives are satisfied. Through empirical evaluation, the agent's performance is shown to be effective even when there are multiple such agents in the environment at the same time and when the agent cannot accurately determine the type of environment that it is situated in.

The Ecosystem Services Project focuses on the values and opportunities that come from the relationships between people and their natural environments. The quality of these relationships is thought to be decreasing as ecosystems change worldwide. This national project seeks to convey an understanding of the services and benefits that we receive from ecosystems. The project will also seek to address

... Goodyear, P., M. de Laat, and V. Lally. 2006. Using pattern languages to mediate theory-praxisconversations in design for networked learning. ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology 14, no. 3: 211–23. Goodyear, P., G. Salmon, JM Spector, C. Steeples, and S. Tickner. 2001. ...

Research Question: What are the key factors that shape the decision-making frameworks of Australian public sector organizations in developing risk management strategies to address possible disasters arising from Information System (IS) failures? Subsidiary questions arising from this, and which will help further focus the study, are: Do these factors vary across organizational and industry contexts? How is preparedness to deal with possible IS-related disasters interpreted by key decision-makers within public sector ...

Roadway planning can become a contentious process. Delays to projects are frequently due to opposition, conflicting interests and differing opinions from stakeholders, resource agencies, planning organizations and others. Due to the many factors affecting the decision making process, the lack of a unique solution and the plurality of opinions, computational tools may support conflict resolution and decision making. Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) offers a framework wherein differing opinions concerning priorities and values may be utilized in a structured process that considers decision factors, ranks factor criteria, and allocates weights to factors so that results reflect the appropriate priority of each factor considered. This paper addresses a GIS-based decision making framework focusing on environmental and early planning needs in a high impacted transportation corridors. It contains an implementation of MCDA called Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) into a geospatia...